More AirAsia flights from Don Mueang to Chinese destinations

Moving the operations to Don Mueang Airport on Oct 1, AirAsia is prepared to launch more services from the airport re-opened for international flights, with a focus on Chinese destinations.

The direct flight to Bangkok to Xi'an will be launched in November, with the special one-way prices starting from Bt2,790. More destinations will be covered, said Tassapon Bijleveld, CEO of Thai AirAsia.

“China is growing rapidly and AirAsia is very focused on this market. We are the first and only low-cost airline to offer daily direct flights to Xi’an, one of China’s most popular tourist destinations, located in the central area of northwest China. Once again, we are very proud to be opening up more opportunities for investment and tourism revenue in cities with great potential and Xi’an is no exception," he said.

Known as the 8th Wonder of the World, Xi'an is also one of China’s four historical capital cities, famous for The Terracotta Warriors of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, a collection of over 7,000 life-sized depictions of cavalry, war horses and chariots buried in an over 25,000 square meter section of the monarch’s mausoleum.

At 600,000, Chinese travellers now make up the largest group of international passengers of Thai AirAsia, accounting for 11 per cent of total passengers from January-September. This is a significant increase of 34 per cent compared to the same period last year.

“Our direction for the remainder of 2012 and 2013 is to focus on further expansion in China and to add additional frequency to our popular domestic and international destinations. We are confident that as a result of this, we will hit our target of 8 million passengers this year and eventually 10 million passengers by 2013”, said the CEO.